Stewart Glad To Be Back On Classical Stage

Patrick Stewart is "enjoying acting more than I ever have done" now that he has returned to the stage, he told Jasper Rees of The Telegraph in Britain.

Rees makes his disdain for Star Trek and its fans plain in the opening paragraphs of the article — "The grimmest weekend of my professional life was spent at a Star Trek convention in a hangar on the fringe of Blackpool", he wrote, claiming that the "only conversation I had with a normal person the entire weekend was when I met Patrick Stewart."

Thus one may take with a grain of salt his observation that Stewart "sounds like Scrooge embracing life after he has seen the error of his ways."

Stewart claimed that the convention "was actually a fun afternoon", though he added that he no longer finds it amusing "to be around Klingons and Borgs" and that "having my photo taken with a total stranger gives me the creeps" — the creepiest of which was a Patrick Stewart lookalike.

Of the poor box office for Star Trek: Nemesis, he said, "Maybe in the long run it's a blessing. We can finally have closure on all of that," noting that he has no hang-ups about Star Trek: The Next Generation: "I am incredibly evolved about it."

Rees reported that Stewart is trying to persuade his American wife, former Star Trek producer Wendy Neuss, that they should move to England, where Stewart hopes to play Shakespearean roles including Macbeth, Lear and Prospero.

During the X2 publicity junket, claimed Rees, Stewart "came across hacks galore who told him how brave he was to venture on stage", currently in The Master Builder.

"I'm still naive enough and in love enough with what I do to believe that drama can affect someone's life, the way they view the world and themselves," Stewart said. "[The characters] have these powerful longings, mostly for things they will never have, and it just all feels so recognisable."